'MATERIALITY'
2019
The 'Solidity' and 'Materiality' series fuses blockchain and physical art, marking a new era in generative creativity. These works challenge conventional ideas of ownership, labor, scarcity, and value in the digital age, revealing how technology reshapes our understanding of each.
Created through a three-phase process: Generating, Bridging (2D to 3D), and Physical Production -these works became the first NFTs materialized into physical objects. By delegating part of the creation to algorithms, the series pioneered smart contract–enabled generative art. First shown in New York in 2019, these works remain milestones in digital and blockchain art history.
‘Solidity’ blends digital brushstrokes with algorithmic output, the name references the Ethereum programming language that powers the smart contracts at the heart of the series. Challenging the myth of the solitary “artist genius”, Gordon critiques the bias toward physical over digital art. By producing physical “copies” of unique digital “originals”, the series subverts traditional ideas of value and authenticity.
In Solidity, the “human error” in Gordon’s hand-painted works becomes the sole point of distinction, intensifying the tension between machine precision and human imperfection.
By contrast, 'Materiality' pushes creative machine production further, exploring themes of labor and automation by using CNC technology, 3D printing, and casting techniques to produce highly tactile, physical works.
Together, Solidity and Materiality capture a pivotal moment in history when the boundaries between human and machine, digital and physical, and systems of value were rewritten - redefining what art can be in a tokenized world.
